


Wrapped in Red

by WhyDoIWrite



Series: Country Christmas [1]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28309269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyDoIWrite/pseuds/WhyDoIWrite
Summary: A winter storm leaves Lindsey stranded in Atlanta for Christmas, and Sonnet decides tonight is the night she's going to risk it all for the woman she's dreamed about for years.
Relationships: Lindsey Horan/Emily Sonnett
Series: Country Christmas [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073378
Comments: 4
Kudos: 93





	Wrapped in Red

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of Atlanta's impending horrid weather.
> 
> Also, it's still Christmas Eve on one of our coasts so.
> 
> Also also, I'm way too tired to even give this a once-over.

_From afar I’ve loved you_ _  
__But never let it show_ _  
__And every year another_ _  
__December comes and goes_

 _Always watching_ _  
__Never reaching_

 _But this Christmas_ _  
__I’m gonna risk it all_ _  
__This Christmas_ _  
__I’m not afraid to fall_

Maybe it’s because she’s loved her for so long, or knows her so well, maybe it’s just because it’s Christmas Eve, but nothing about Lindsey’s shitty mood around her, or fake polite/happy mood around her family, can put a damper on Emily’s spirits today. It’s freaking Christmas, her second favorite holiday behind only Halloween, and the Great Horan in a bad mood is no match for her hot chocolate drinking, lights twinkling, cookie making, gingerbread baking, fire crackling, carols ringing, pine-scented home.

Besides, this isn’t her fault. Lindsey missed _her_ . Lindsey begged to see _her_. No one made the midfielder buy a plane ticket. No one made her wait to visit until this close to Christmas. No one made the weather turn bad enough to cancel flights out of Hartsfield-Jackson, and no one could have predicted that Christmas Eve would turn into a mess of black ice, with the potential for heavy snow on Christmas Day. It’s not like Emily ordered the city-wide shutdown of major highways and facilities. And, most importantly of all, Lindsey had been with her own family more on than off since March, while Emily had been on the other side of the world for much of that time. So yeah, it’s Christmas, and yeah, Emily gets why she’s bummed about not being able to make it home to her own family, but the Sonnetts will just have to suffice this year. And the Sonnetts rock Christmas.

There’s a lot Emily has to be thankful for this holiday season. That she managed to get out of Orlando COVID-free seems like a miracle. That she managed to get out of Orlando period is huge. She’s going to get to play with Kelley, which goes so far in healing the wound of not getting to play with Lindsey anymore. She had a blast in Sweden, won a title, played good ball. Her family’s healthy and all together. And as much as Lindsey doesn’t want to be here, she’s here, too, and that feels natural because Lindsey feels like family. As far as Emily can tell, the end of 2020 seems pretty damn sweet. Almost like everything she’s wanted is coming true, colliding on a path of near-perfection, to make up for the months that her eyes were swollen with the tears she couldn’t stop from falling and the despair she couldn’t shake. Given the space she was in in January, her happiness now seems like a Christmas miracle.

“Ok, grumpy,” Emily eyes Lindsey’s untouched hot chocolate, “I’ll make you coffee. But then, we’re building a gingerbread house that will put whatever Emma and Brooks make to shame.” Emily rises from the table, but comes right back to blow a raspberry onto Lindsey’s cheek, and Lindsey lets out a half-giggle which is more than she has since last night when she found out there were no flights out before the airport shut down. “Between the coffee and the kith,” Emily crinkles her nose at Lindsey as she smiles, “I knew something was bound to make your face beautiful again.”

“My face is always beautiful,” Lindsey exaggerates her scowl. 

“That it is, my dear, that it is,” Emily drops a kiss on the top of her head to Emma’s narrowing eyes across the table. Eyes that when narrowed, look just like her own. That are suspicious, not annoyed by the threat of the impending competition. That see inside her soul in a way that Emily typically appreciates, but today, she does not. Emma knows how much Emily loves Lindsey, and for how long she has. She knew without Emily ever speaking it, and Emily knows what her twin is thinking now. She’s in too deep, getting too close again, too fast. Time away from Lindsey didn’t break that bond, but it helped Emily accept that they’d never be more than friends. Having her back, even if it has only been a week, seems to have wrecked much of that progress, and Emma sees it. Will probably call her out on it later. Isn’t wrong, because of course she isn’t.

*****

“Um,” Emma pushes her way into their shared bathroom while Emily is finishing up her makeup, “why are you wearing _that_?”

 _That_ is a strapless red lace dress and gold pumps. High in the front, perfectly accentuating her breasts, with a plunging V in between, and low in the back. It leaves her square shoulders and well-muscled back fully exposed. And it is not at all forgiving, tight in the waist, hugging her hips and showing off her butt. It’s short in the front, but longer in the back, making it sexy but still appropriate for a party, so Emily doesn’t see what the problem is.

“Um, because we have a Christmas party about to be in full-swing downstairs?”

“ _That’s_ not family Christmas party material.”

“It’s red. What the fuck, Emma? I thought I looked nice. Do I need to change?”

“No. No, you do look nice. But you’ve never looked _that_ nice for our family. This about…” and Emma hesitates as her sister glares at her, “oh my God, you’re going to do something tonight aren’t you? Tell her how you feel? Do you really think this is a good time, sis? She’s been in a mood all day.”

Emily lets out a heavy puff of air. There’s no point in arguing with her sister, mostly because what she suspects is true is kinda true. Not completely, because Emily hasn’t decided for sure what, if anything she’s going to do yet, but the thought definitely crossed her mind when she flipped through her closet and chose this. Lindsey’s mood seems inconsequential to her though. She’s too used to it to care - losses, injuries, fights with Russell all bring out this side of her - but mostly, she’s just too tired of waiting. Waiting for “the right time” in Portland backfired and now she’s not going back to Portland ever again. Waiting until Lindsey is single for “long enough,” without ever knowing what “long enough” is because Russell just pops back into her life. Waiting for Lindsey to do something, to do more than let her hand drift absentmindedly under Emily’s shirt while the TV is on, rendering Emily completely helpless as she barely moves her thumb. To do more than grab her hand on the bus. To do more than breathe into her neck on the nights she can’t fall asleep alone. She’s so, so tired of waiting. Of watching Lindsey across the room, across the field, across the world, and not being able to say what’s in her heart. Unable to touch her the way she needs to, the way they both need to. She’s tired of never being brave enough to see if she might could be loved back. Never being confident enough to believe she’s worth it.

But in this dress, she at least _looks_ confident, and she’s going to ride that wave to actual confidence.

“I’m not going to _do_ anything, Emma,” she tells her half-lie.

Emma scoffs at that, but then looks at her more closely. “Oh. Oh, I get it. You’re trying to look so good that she can’t resist you. So good that _she’ll_ do something about it.” Emma shrugs. “Good play, I guess. You do look good, sis. But- “ Emma stops herself, and Emily can feel her unspoken words aching in her bones. 

_Are you going to be ok if she doesn’t feel the same?_ _  
__Is it worth it to potentially lose your best friend?_  
 _Is it worth it if she thinks she feels the same and changes her mind?_ _  
_Are you going to make it through that?

As unsure as Emma is, and Emily is because she can see the skepticism, Emily thinks the answer to all those unasked questions is _yes_. It’s worth risking their friendship, risking her heart, a thousand times over it’s worth it because not knowing if they could have been something will always be worse. Because if she’s willing to admit that she’s fallen, maybe, just maybe, Lindsey can, too.

“All right then.” Emma’s expression is a little sad, a little pained as she straightens Emily’s dress a touch and tucks a stray strand of blonde hair that didn’t make it into her low ponytail behind her ear. “You are absolutely stunning tonight, sis. She’d be a fool…”

Emily makes her way down the hallway to the guest bedroom where Lindsey has been getting ready for the party. She stands outside the door, fist poised to knock, but she needs a moment to compose herself because she still doesn’t really have a plan. She stares down at the way the shimmery dress lays flat against her stomach and at Emma’s pumps, and while she’s uncertain about all of it, she really doesn’t have enough to lose to make staying silent worth it any longer.

Lindsey surprises her, opening the door before she even gets the chance to knock. 

And apparently Emily surprises her, too. 

“Jesus,” she breathes, and there’s more behind it than just being startled that someone was outside her door when she opened it. “Fuck, Em- you- you-" her eyes follows the curve of Emily's neck down her chest to her hips and back up. "You scared me. What are you doing?” Lindsey asks a little hoarsely.

“Just coming to see if you’re ready to brave the entire Sonnett clan,” Emily answers, trying hard to keep her eyes on Lindsey’s. It’s so, so hard though with what she’s wearing. She hadn’t brought anything for the occasion considering she wasn’t supposed to be part of it, so she borrowed a dress from Emma. A flapper-inspired dress, with thin straps that only serve to accentuate the rippling muscles of her shoulders, that draws attention to her neckline, that despite the fringe, does little to hide her thighs.

Lindsey nods, but Emily's too wrapped up in her to even notice. “I’m sorry about today,” Lindsey touches Emily’s elbow, and it’s enough to snap her out of the trance she’s been in since the door opened.

Emily shakes her head. “It’s fine, Linds. I get it. You’re allowed to be sad.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Your family’s been so welcoming, and you’ve been so good to me. You really tried to make the Christmas spirit come alive today, and I feel like I ruined it.”

“You didn’t ruin anything at all,” Emily tries to reassure her. “I wouldn’t let you even if you wanted to. And you got into the Christmas spirit eventually,” Emily nudges her shoulder. Lindsey couldn’t build a gingerbread house for shit, but she was all about decorating it. And once she started humming along to the carols, Emily had dropped an elf hat on her head, and all was right with the world again. “Shall we?” Emily presents her arm for Lindsey to take, and surprisingly, she does.

“What am I? Your date?” Lindsey jokes, still looking at her arm interlocked with Emily’s as they near the landing. The way Emily’s eyes snap up when she asks gives her pause.

“I mean, yeah, if you wanna be. Aunt Gayle might leave me alone about boys then.” But for as serious as Emily sounds when she says it, she unhooks her arm from Lindsey’s as soon as they hit that first step. Fake dating the person she wants to give her heart to is not going to work for her tonight.

Emily watches her all night more in awe of her with every glance she steals. Her eyes sparkle as she talks to Emily’s uncles about how well Emily played in Sweden. Her younger cousins are star-struck, but Lindsey takes her time talking to them, asks them questions like she’s interested in them, and promises them autographs after dinner. She even captivates the notoriously difficult Aunt Gayle and somehow gets her laughing without the forced humor that Emily always has to resort to. Her eyes sparkle in the flickering candlelight. The lines at the corners of her eyes are deeper than when Emily last saw her in Dallas nine months ago, but they make her that more attractive. Her quiet giggle still finds a way to fill Emily’s ears even from across the room. She’s magnificent, but moreso, she’s genuinely happy.

Maybe that’s what makes the thought of telling Lindsey how she feels seem almost unbearably hard as the evening wears on. She feels like she’s already in a perfect little bubble, where Lindsey is hers and fits into her family, where Lindsey _wants_ to fit into her family, but the truth is, none of that is true. It’s almost too much to keep watching, so Emily slinks away into the kitchen to start the clean-up process while everyone mills around with wine and Christmas carols on their lips.

“Hey,” Lindsey’s voice startles her as she’s washing a casserole dish over the sink, but the hand that slides along her hip startles her even more. She closes her eyes, soaking up every bit of that sensation, welcoming it for as long as she’s given. “Can we go talk somewhere?”

Emily swallows down the lump that forms almost immediately in her throat, conditioned to believe that anything even remotely similar to "we need to talk" is never a good thing. She’d rather not lead Lindsey back through the party to go upstairs, so she opts for the enclosed porch. She regrets it almost as soon as the door closes behind them, shivering in the chilly temperature, but Lindsey starts vigorously rubbing her arms to try to warm them.

“Better?” she smiles as the goosebumps on Emily’s arms fade under her hands, and Emily nods.

“What’s up? Are you ok? Too much?”

“No, it’s perfect. It’s just right,” Lindsey assures her about her family the same way she has always assured Lindsey that she’s not too much. She’s perfect. Just right. "So um…”

And it’s like Lindsey doesn’t know what to say, where to start, how to handle them being alone all of a sudden, so Emily does what she does best and changes the subject for her. “So that cherry cheesecake was pretty much the bomb huh?” she smirks, because it was the dessert she made.

“Stop,” Lindsey almost whispers, because she gets what Emily is doing. “I need to say something to you.” 

Emily’s stomach drops. That sounds even worse than “we need to talk.”

“I was on the phone with Mike earlier, whining about being stuck here, and he said something that I thought was stupid when he said it. I told him he was stupid even. But I don’t know how stupid he is because I can’t stop thinking about it.” Emily waits patiently for Lindsey to keep explaining. “He said maybe this bad weather was fate stranding me here so I could finally get my shit together and talk to you.”

“What are you talking about? We talk all the time,” Emily insists.

Lindsey lets out a frustrated sign. “Not just talk. _Talk_. About how much I’ve missed you. About how I can’t stop thinking about you. About how afraid I am to lose you.”

A puzzled look spreads across Emily’s face. “You're never gonna lose me, Linds,” she promises, her voice cracking a little at the fact that earlier this evening, she was convinced that confessing her feelings would be worth losing her friend.

“Sometimes, it feels like I might. Like I already have. And then we have weeks like this past week, where everything is perfect and I don’t want our time to end. I don’t want this to be it. I want more.”

“I can come to Denver after camp…”

“Yeah,” Lindsey nods shyly, “I’d like that. But I want more with you. Do you get what I’m saying Em?”

And she does, but not really, because there’s a part of her that will never believe the possibility is a reality unless it’s explicit.

“I can’t stop thinking about you,” Lindsey repeats slowly, this time emphasizing each word as she closes the gap between them, dropping her arms around Emily’s shoulders, and stopping mere inches from her face. From her lips. 

“More like…” Emily starts and then she goes for it, incapable of asking for more explanation, and unable to wait for Lindsey to take it into her own hands. She frames Lindsey’s face, pulling her down into a kiss that hits her in the gut in a way the kisses she fantasized about never did.

“It was the dress, huh?” Emily pulls away to catch her breath after a few minutes of unhurried exploring of each other. She doesn’t want the silence that she knows is going to follow to have a chance. It, and the gravity of the moment feel as dangerous as the prospect of talking did just a few minutes ago.

“Huh? No. I mean, fuck, Em, I almost lost it when I opened the door and saw you in it. You know red’s my favorite. But no, I’ve been thinking about you for a long time. I just thought other thoughts when I saw you in _that_.”

“Oh yeah?” Emily wiggles her eyebrows. “Other thoughts like…”

“Stop,” Lindsey huffs, and Emily laughs.

“It was definitely the dress. I picked my red one for you because I know what it- ”

“Stop,” Lindsey half laughs, half whines. “I’ve never seen you look as good as you do tonight,” Lindsey admits quietly.

“Well good, cause that was my plan to seduce you. Guess it worked.” Lindsey rolls her eyes, and after a moment of fun, Emily turns serious again. “I was going to tell you tonight too, you know.”

“Tell me what?”

“Can’t stop thinking about you. Want more from you, too. More for us. I wanna see what this feeling is. It’s like someone squeezes my heart every time you hang up or leave or pass by me even.”

“Yeah,” Lindsey nods. “Just like that.” She leans down and kisses Emily, and this time, it’s softer and it lingers. “What did that feel like?”

“Right,” Emily murmurs, snuggling into her side because despite the warmth coursing through her body, her skin is cold. She can count on Lindsey for a lot of things emotionally, but she can also count on her to provide snuggly warmth. She relaxes into Lindsey’s body, staring out into her backyard while Lindsey stares at her. “Hey,” she says softly after a few minutes. “Member how you were complaining that it didn’t even feel like Christmas without snow? Look.” Lindsey tears her eyes away from Emily's and follows her gaze. This time, it’s Emily's turn to watch her, the amazement in her eyes as the flakes flutter and swirl to the ground. For a woman who’s grown up with snow in her life since almost birth, seeing new snowfall for the first time with Emily causes her breath to catch in her throat.

“I’m so glad I stayed,” she chokes out.

“For a white Christmas?”

Well that certainly doesn’t hurt, but that’s not what Lindsey means, and Emily knows it even if she does want to hear it anyway. “For you, Em.” She presses a kiss into her temple. “It was worth staying for you.”


End file.
